"What kind of ground are we? What kind of terrain do
we want to be? Maybe sometimes we are like the path: we hear the Lord’s word
but it changes nothing in our lives because we let ourselves be numbed by all
the superficial voices competing for our attention; or we are like the rocky
ground: we receive Jesus with enthusiasm, but we falter and, faced with
difficulties, we don’t have the courage to swim against the tide; or we are
like the thorny ground: negativity, negative feelings choke the Lord’s word in
us (cf. Mt 13:18-22). But today I am sure that the seed is falling on good
soil, that you want to be good soil, not part-time Christians, not “starchy”
and superficial, but real. I am sure that you don’t want to be duped by a false
freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I know
that you are aiming high, at long-lasting decisions which will make your lives
meaningful. Jesus is capable of letting you do this: he is 'the way, and the
truth, and the life' (Jn 14:6). Let’s trust in him. Let’s make him our guide!"
--Pope Francis, Address to Young People at Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 27, 2013
"To begin the
year by recalling God’s goodness in the maternal face of Mary, in the maternal
face of the Church, in the faces of our own mothers, protects us from the
corrosive disease of being “spiritual orphans”. It is the sense of being
orphaned that the soul experiences when it feels motherless and lacking the
tenderness of God, when the sense of belonging to a family, a people, a land,
to our God, grows dim. This sense of being orphaned lodges in a narcissistic
heart capable of looking only to itself and its own interests. It grows when
what we forget that life is a gift we have received – and owe to others – a
gift we are called to share in this common home....
"Celebrating the
feast of the Holy Mother of God makes us smile once more as we realize that we
are a people, that we belong, that only within a community, within a family,
can we as persons find the “climate”, the “warmth” that enables us to grow in
humanity, and not merely as objects meant to “consume and be consumed”. To
celebrate the feast of the Holy Mother of God reminds us that we are not
interchangeable items of merchandise or information processors. We are
children, we are family, we are God’s People."
--Pope Francis, Homily, January 1, 2017
